As a young boy, I witnessed a piece of asbestos on fire. It glowed, smoldered, smoked, even burned. But it never burned out. Strange, I thought. I was very unsaved at the time.
The Word of God speaks to our souls in warning, for us and those lost. First, Jesus’ cousin, John the baptizer:
Luke 3:16-17 John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. “His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The Greek word here for “unquenchable” is “asbestos,” from “a” or negative, and “sbestos” or quenched, extinguished. Sort of like “a-theist,” meaning no God.
And finally our Lord Jesus Himself, in holy love, proclaims a warning too:
Mark 9:43-44 “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
It’s very fashionable these days for some to teach God just annihilates all those who are in rebellion to Him, and died without Christ…
I, for one, think not. God sends us to the best place ever forever and ever if we believe and obey. Or God sends us the worst place ever forever and ever.
The following article will absolutely take your breath away. It did mine especially the part that states, “For punishment in hell is retributive. It is not remedial. It does not make anyone better.” WHAT IS HELL? [AT THE BATTLE FRONT 93]
Please favor us, gracious Father, and help us submit to You, persevere in our faith, and evangelize the lost in loving, holy obedience for it’s our reasonable service to Your Lord Jesus.
Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Your friend and brother in fighting the good fight,
Marc
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Saints, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!
You may view our Archives here: FRIDAY FIRE – ARCHIVES; Complete Archives; feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion. May our Father richly bless you with His grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in order to walk worthy of His name.
Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Theresa Gomes says
Dear Brothers,
Please help me to understand how you can say such things? We all deserve to experience the consequence of sin – death. Remember, whoever says ‘you fool’ shall be guilty enough to go into the Gehenna of fire.
Many quote Mark 9 about the worm and unquenchable fire (which just means it cannot be put out), but why do we not quote the next verse?
“For everyone will be salted with fire.” (Mark 9:49)
God’s fire will sweep over all creation in judgment, and whatever is in Jesus will be ‘saved’. Everything else will be burned up. (John 15:6, 1 Cor. 3:11-17, Heb. 12:29)
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” (Mal. 4:1)
When we say that the fires of hell are just retribution, we agree that we deserve to be there and that we indeed deserve to be tormented for ever and ever and ever. Only by God’s grace do any of us come to repentance. How do you see that the Father will derive any sense of justice for tormenting His creation – which He knew would fall – for all eternity and they are just dust! We are all just a wisp of smoke, a flower that springs up in the field and wilts and dries up. When you burn a dried up weed, it is consumed and is no more. God is the life-force for all. If He withdraws His presence, how could anything/one exist? They just can’t without Him.
Don’t you see how completely senseless it is to think Jesus will give a punishment that never ends? Throughout the BIble we see His disciplines/punishments as either restorative (Israel) or destructive (Sodom, the Flood).
Yes, fear God. “…fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matt. 10:28)
May the Judge, our Master have mercy on us all!
With sorrow and love and hope in Jesus,
Theresa
jesusislord says
Sister Theresa – when you claim it’s “senseless” that Jesus would punish eternally, you do us a disservice and dishonor. If you wish to search together for the Lord’s mind on this, we can do so. But you first must put aside your prejudice and learn what other good brethren have found that oppose your viewpoint.
The secret to the “what” (disagreement) is the “how” (biblical communication like Acts 15). Here are links that will help: http://www.walkworthy.org/communication and http://www.walkworthy.org/hell
Brother Marc